Steamy Gay Romance Fuels Torchwood Plot

Torchwood took a sharp turn into “gaysville” last Friday in “Immortal Sins,” wherein Jack meets a swarthy Italian man and embarks on a volatile romantic journey that could have far-reaching consequences for humanity if things go bad, as they often do. Hot sex and pillow talk form much of the onscreen relationship, but viewers will get the sense that a genuine relationship is forming between the two men, that is to say until Jack’s partner bugs out when he discovers Jack is immortal. Naturally, the relationship takes a detour into crazytown and begins to resemble a deleted scene from ‘Motel Hell.”

And speaking of hell, longtime fans of Torchwood know that Gwen and Jack have had an undefined romantic “thing,” kind of like that “thing” between The Doctor and his female companions. In “Immortal Sins,” Gwen tries to define their relationship once and for all by betraying Jack to save her family from whatever evil is orchestrating the Miracle. She has struggled with the “thing” with Jack and is now letting go. Jack understands, and like any gay/’bisexual’ man, he lets Gwen know that he will not go down without trying to take her down first.

Writer and executive producer Jane Espenson told AfterElton that a lot of work went into making “Immortal Sins.” “This episode went through a lot of rewrites overall – not just because of budgetary changes, but also because Russell kept telling me to go deeper.”

“The Jack and Gwen exchanges got better the more I thought about what these two really want and need from each other, and how hard they’re both willing to fight when their needs conflict. The conflict in this episode forces them to clash like steel blades, but it took me several passes – and a few assists – to get down to the steel. By the way, the “He always lies” message on the lenses was something that Russell had in mind from the very earliest versions of the story, back before even the outline had been written.”